JR West goes beyond an apology

In the September issues of their in-house magazine, West Japan Railway Company (affectionately known as JR West) ran an article consisting of messages from relatives and friends of the 106 people killed in a derailment accident in Amagasaki, Japan, on April 25.

Comments published in the magazine include "What good is profit at the expense of human life?" (from a thirtysomething woman who lost her boss) and "Understand that you've disrupted the lives of many people" (from a thirtysomething man who lost a coworker).

A company spokesman said, "We hope to use [these comments] to create a corporate culture that puts top priority on safety." (All translations are mine. The original Japanese article is here [registration is required but free].)

Service on the line where the accident occurred resumed on June 20, 55 days after the accident.

—Mellow Monk

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Koizumi's electoral victory, part 2

Those unfamiliar about Japan's postal-reform issue may wonder why it was the subject of September 12th's single-issue national election. It's because privatizing Japan's postal system is not just a matter of, say, streamlining the country's mail-delivery system.

It's because Japan's post office is actually the world's largest financial institution, managing a whopping $3 trillion in assets. This money comes primarily from savings accounts that Japan's residents can open at any post office branch. Not only are these accounts insured by the government, but the sheer number of post office locations makes them more convenience than any bank for a lot of folks.

Reformists, however, claim that the central government has made poor use of that money, borrowing against it to fund large, wasteful construction projects that are justified as economic stimulation but criticized as pork. Privatizing the post office, they say, will put that money in the hands of the private sector, which can lend it out to the most deserving businesses.

I'll wrap up this discussion in a 3rd and final posting. I promise!

—Mellow Monk

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